What Comes First (Shadouge)
by PrincelyEagle
Summary: When a new threat began terrorizing Mobius, the famous hero Sonic The Hedgehog is missing, Shadow and Rouge were given the mission to find the Mobian hero and stop this being of destruction. But the two will have to choose... to whatever comes first. Story by me.
1. Prologue

Screams...

Horrified and scared screams...

They've filled the entire Station Square, as the population of existing Mobians escape for their dear lives away from the crumbling ruins of the city. Buildings falling, wreckage on the streets and there was no help except for the government agency G.U.N.

For the past few weeks or so, villages were attacked and terrorized, making the townspeople fled to safety. But what was missing...

Was a hero.

Mobius's known hero has not been seen for the majority of the attacks, people were confused and scared as to what happened to the blue hero. He was the one saving them all from the evil clutches of Dr. Ivo Robotnik, aka, Dr. Eggman.

Sonic had always been there to save the day, but it seems he is no longer with them. This mystery had reached countless of helpless people, and finally onto G.U.N. As did the people, the agency also has no clue as to where Sonic The Hedgehog's last whereabouts were, confusing then to the brink to finally ask their top agents.

Two Mobians who have a connection to the hero.

Rouge The Bat, an ivory furred bat with a very voluptuous but beautiful appearance. She has tan skin and a slim figure, two dark purple bat wings sticking out her back, with pink lipstick and blue eyeshadow.

Even though she joined a government agency, she was also a jewel thief known to be the world's greatest thief. Stealing very easily from pawn shops, jewelry stores, and even gems that were rare and shiny.

She is a person you do not wanna cross, as she has known to be ruthless and makes things her way.

But... That doesn't mean she doesn't have a soft spot.

And her softest spot, is her partner, the greatest G.U.N agent.

Shadow The Hedgehog. The most ruthless and dark of all the agents, he was the top agent, sent to dangerous missions respectively due to his powers and his personality to get things done with.

He is shown to do things in a dark manner, by anything means necessary. Created to save and help people, he was shunned away, saying he was a threat. This made him feel angry inside, but the only thing that kept him going as he was inside his unconscious state, was his friend, Maria.

But she sacrificed her life to save him, making him into what he is now. But he isn't completely heartless, even though he is shown to be like that, he cares much for his partner, Rouge The Bat.

These two go a long away back, but that's a story for another day...

What will happen now?


	2. A Newly Risen Evil

"Can agents Shadow The Hedgehog and Rouge The Bat report to the commander's office?"

In the G.U.N. headquarters, many busy agents and workers rushing through the hallways in a hurry, trying to keep up with people who's town had been destroyed and crumbled to bits. G.U.N. had been busy for the past couple weeks and rumors reached to them that a new threat has risen and destroyed at least 10 villages and towns and had previously destroyed Station Square.

This rampaging threat was never seen however, people have reported that it takes a form of a Mobian, but they don't know if it's either a cat or a hedgehog. Others say it is a shadowy figure that lurks in the darkness while it topples over houses and other buildings.

Theses rumors confused a lot of agents and tried to help out as best as they can, but a few agents, however, noticed something missing. An important figure in the world of Mobius, a person who would always save the day from threats and who doesn't give up.

When they had finally realized this, they've reported their thoughts to the commander, Abraham Towers, saying to him that Mobius' hero, Sonic The Hedgehog, is nowhere to be seen. Abe lowered his head and rubbed his chin, thinking quietly until he looked up towards the woman in front of him.

"Get me agents Shadow and Rouge. "

* * *

The clanking sound can be heard across the hallways, catching the rushing agents' attention. They all looked at each other, as some of them shrugged and others whispered quietly to one another, curious as to what that sound was.

The sound grew closer, the agents stared in front of them, some of them can feel the wind flying across them as if someone is flapping a piece of paper, making wind.

Then, out from the shadows, appeared a black and red hedgehog with a dark appearance, his expression is very serious and blank, very hard to read to all of them. His eyes are pure bloodshot red, as he would stare into their eyes in an intimidating way.

They all stepped back, feeling cautious of the Mobian hedgehog filling the halls with fear, with just his presence alone he can easily intimidate anyone he pleases.

Behind him, a large gust of wind blew and almost made everyone fall back from the sudden force except for the hedgehog, who has been standing firmly and resisted the wind. They all held out there arms in front of themselves, trying to shield from the wind.

As they all opened their eyes, they all saw a female Mobian bat, her appearance was truly a beauty to behold, with blue eyeshadow and pink lipstick stylized as her makeup. Wearing a tight black catsuit with a pink heart chest plate and a white border around it, white heeled boots with hearts on the tip of her toes. This outfit really exaggerated her body, as it outlined her physique quite well, making the male agents blush.

A smirk appeared across the bat's muzzle, feeling as if though she and the black and red hedgehog had authority above the agents, "Hello there~," She said in a very amused tone, her voice sounded delicate but demanding in the same time, making some of the women in the crowd feel jealous of her,

"Can any of you please clear a path for me and my partner? We are kind of in a hurry. " She continues, then her wings began to flap harder and produced a gust wind as it pushes a few people and stumbled down two others. They immediately acted and cleared a path for the two mobians, "Here you are, Agent Shadow and Rouge. "

The two Mobians, whose names are Shadow and Rouge, walked through the crowd of agents and continued on their way. Rouge smirked devilishly, but sooner when she and her gloomy partner drifted further away from the crowd, her expression turned serious quickly, putting on a frown, something unusual of her to do.

She looked away from behind her and crossed her arms, looking down on the floor, not wanting to say anything at the awkward silence she and Shadow are having. Rouge then shifted her sight towards her partner, who seems to be determined to get whatever the job the commander is giving them done.

Even though she looked like she likes Shadow's intimidating persona, she does fear him quite like everyone else. She almost felt like just a follower of his but enjoys his company. It didn't affect her much, but just by saying it made her quickly mad.

The pair is often seen with each other if they're together at all, Rouge sees themselves as merely just partners but ever since the years passed the two had come to refer to themselves as 'best friends', though they never really hang out outside of work.

The white bat glanced at Shadow at a swift pace and quickly looked away, not wanting to catch his attention but decided to say something, "So, what do you think Abe wants now? " She questioned, not really expecting an answer from the ebony hedgehog's mouth.

But surprisingly, he sighed deeply and balled his fists tightly, feeling a bit irritated, "Don't know, we'll have to find out once we get there. " He answered bluntly, not looking at Rouge, as this action already made her prepare herself now that he seemed disturbed.

Nobody wants to get in Shadow's bad side, even Rouge, although she risks it if she has her own agendas, she is still very cautious of Shadow, despite them being teammates and 'best friends'. But other than her constant fear of Shadow, she does hold a certain amount of attraction towards him.

She doesn't know this however, because of her crush on a familiar red echidna, she didn't really touch on these feelings. As Shadow can be ruthless and blunt, the ivory bat still maintained a good partnership and friendship with the dark hedgehog.

The two, as they were both silent for the entire walk to the commander's office, finally arrived. Shadow took the first step and opened the door, the office was small, but was kept cozy and professional at the same time, giving Shadow a sense of morality in the situation. Rouge, on the other hand, was a bit nervous but comfortable with Shadow's presence in the room, it's reflected her attraction to him but still, she didn't bother.

At the far end of the room, was a middle-aged man sitting across from the two agents, sitting on a cushioned seat with his hands and arms on the table in a professional manner, "Shadow, Rouge, please sit down." He said, offering the two seats in front of his desk to Shadow and Rouge.

The agents complied with his offer and sat down on the two seats. Shadow, sitting upright and putting his arms on the armrest of the chair, Rouge just sat lazily on the seat and crossed her legs, tapping the heart tip on her heels onto the commander's table.

"What is it, commander? " Asked Shadow, feeling already bored of the silence shared between the three of them, the white bat who sat next to him, blinked her eyes as her body felt cold all of a sudden, feeling Shadow's cold demeanor making her spine shake.

The commander sighed, pulling out a picture from his desk and showed it to his agents, "You two know Sonic The Hedgehog, do you not? " He asked, showing a picture of the blue blur to Shadow and Rouge. Rouge's eyes widened as her eyes slowly rolled to Shadow, who seems annoyed by the picture but easily hid this with a scowl, a typical expression he uses every single day.

Rouge, not wanting Shadow to throw a fit, cleared her throat and nodded at the commander, "Yes, we do know him, but one of us does... Not get along with him. " Rouge answered, referring to her partner, who never really held that comment as an insult but respected her answer as it was a true fact.

Abe simply nodded and placed the photo inside his table drawer and faced the two once more," Yes, I am fully aware of agent Shadow's rivalry with Sonic, but let's cut to the chase, " He then stood up from his seat and carried a file with him, "Do you two know Sonic is missing? " He asks the two, in a cold mannerism, implying to both agents he was beginning to get serious about the mission, something Shadow is ready to face.

But when the two heard this, they were a little startled, but not surprised. They both know Sonic can take some time to try to take down an enemy, but he's Sonic, he'd already do something without waiting for at least a couple of weeks. It really confused the dark anti-hero, making him go into deep thought of the endless possibilities as to where Sonic is and his whereabouts are.

Rouge, however, was more focused on Sonic's allies. Tails, Knuckles, Amy, anyone the blue blur had always relied on. The commander noticed the two thinking for a little while, he knew already the two were already interested in the mission and its sources.

"I need you two to find Sonic, and defeat whoever is causing mayhem around theses parts, " He gave them the file, the two agents turned around as Shadow grabbed the file, "And make it quick. " Shadow and Rouge nodded and were dismissed, the two G.U.N. agents traveled from the commander's office to the garage and both agreed to take a ride on Shadow's motorcycle.

"So, where do we begin? " Rouge asked, crossing her arms and looking directly at Shadow. The black and red hedgehog was looking down at the file and looked back at the ivory bat, closing the file and motioned Rouge to get on his bike.

Rouge complied and sat down, riding behind Shadow, the grim agent then rode afterward and slowly breathed in and out before saying, "We'll begin, with interrogation." Shadow immediately stepped on the gas and in a flash, his motorcycle rode off with the two agents.

Whilst riding, in the file, a photo of a gold kitsune, a red echidna, and a pink hedgehog were posing for the camera was sticking out as Shadow began to drive faster while tucking the folder away.


	3. Ruined Mind

The ride was... Quiet.

Shadow just kept on going without saying anything about the mission, he was fairly determined to get the mission done with, but Rouge has different thoughts. She was deep in thought for the majority of the ride, narrowing her eyes constantly and looked down as the concrete of the road was blurry while Shadow was driving.

She kept thinking about what Shadow said before they left, it left her to think that maybe, just maybe, that he may be talking about Sonic's friends. Rouge is no investigator but she is very observant, especially around Shadow, cause whatever the black blur says anything, it was left completely vague for a normal person to understand.

But as Rouge's mind went into her own world of questions and thoughts, Shadow was, calm. He seemed very cool, at least that's what his facial expression was. The tensing on shoulders, the grip on the handle of his motorbike, he was very serious about the mission and he doesn't want anybody crossing him from finishing this goal.

But his dedication to doing the mission was very confusing for anyone who knows him or Sonic, since Shadow doesn't really like Sonic, to a degree. But somehow he knew that, what would the world be without Sonic The Hedgehog? He knew he can just easily be like Sonic, but he also knew his stubbornness can be less effective in trying to be a helping hand.

He wasn't dumb to realize that, he is aware of his personal attributes, but who can blame him? He was traumatized, he was put to sleep for over 50 years, and he has been manipulated by foes. He's been through a lot, especially witnessing the death of a friend that he has known for a long time.

Nobody really noticed his knowledge of the past, all they knew that he was created by Gerald Robotnik, and that was it but there was so much more. Maria was really the only person who made Shadow happy, it may be hard to believe at first glance but Shadow doesn't kid around with his personal life.

But that was before he met Rouge.

His eyes suddenly perked up, he was nearing a small lab in the open space of the Mystic Ruins. It was a quiet place and was perfect for Tails to build a lab here, due to the peaceful and quiet environment. But the two knew the Mystic Ruins, it was once the ancestral home of the Knuckles Clan, a clan that has befallen because of their own greedy leader.

Shadow stopped in front of the lab and got off, with Rouge following behind, while Shadow was trying to find a good parking spot, Rouge took her time and looked around for anything suspicious. But what she's actually trying to do is to get back into thought again, something about the mission just felt... Odd to her.

"Rouge, come on. " Shadow called out, Rouge nodded and followed behind him, Shadow opened the door without even knocking but it only surprised him. The two agents saw Tails and Amy in the lab, seemingly tired from doing something.

Rouge gasped at the scene and quickly ran up to the sakura hedgehog while Shadow went over to Tails, she then carefully lifted Amy's head and frowned, "Amy dear, what on Mobius happened to you??? " Rouge said, startled and was feeling pity towards the female hedgehog, who was groaning and started to yawn. Amy was very tired, her words began to feel depressed and saddened as she tries to stand up.

"Ugh... T-tails... " She muttered under her breath, while also struggling to stand up and get on her feet. But as she tripped, she summoned her hammer and stumbled against it. Rouge widened her eyes and tries to help Amy up, Rouge can feel Amy's fur, it's was so cold.

Amy started to cry and was about to fall to the ground, but Rouge still held the pink hedgehog, not letting Amy fall down. The ivory bat continue to lead Amy to a nearby couch and laid her down, when Amy started to fall asleep again, with her snores coming as signs, Rouge immediately turned to the gold kitsune sleeping on a desk in front of a computer.

She sighed, the feeling of desperation flowing through the lab, made Rouge feel uneasy, she understood what the two must've been through. But still, she needs more answers so she marched over to Tails and shook him, "Wake up!!" She yelled, making Tails yelp in surprise and by instinct, he propelled himself upwards using his two tails.

Shadow, who decided to observe the rest of the ruined lab, was alerted by Tails crashing around the walls, Rouge then flew after him and managed to grab one of his two tails, prompting the young fox to fall down and hit the ground. Groaning in pain, Tails rubbed his head in pain and sat down on the hard ground,

"...what happened...?" He asks, still hurt, Rouge helped him up to his feet, Tails was feeling very dizzy and tried to keep on his feet, he glanced on the sleeping rose on the couch and sighed, "Thanks for letting her sleep, she... Was really devoted to finding Sonic. " Tails said, walking to the nearest chair his hand can grab and sat down.

Shadow and Rouge looked at each other in confusion and walked over to Tails, "What happened here? " Rouge asked, referring to the ruined laboratory, Tails' eyes widened and took a look around his lab, it was indeed a mess.

He sighed in frustration and rubbed his face, still feeling tired, "We've noticed the whole thing happening around Mobius, we noticed Sonic was gone and, " He paused for a moment and looked at Amy, who was still sleeping on the couch before groaning, "Amy... Didn't take it well. She really devoted all of her time into finding Sonic."

"No kidding." Shadow commented, crossing his arms professionally. Tails then led the two agents to a computer and started typing. Rouge began to get curious of Tails' current activity, she can clearly see on the monitor that Tails was trying to locate something or someone.

"What is that? " She asked, pointing towards the screen, the kitsune nodded and zoomed into the small, yellow pinpoint, "Guess you guys should know what me and Amy have been up to, " Tails began to type faster on the keyboard, trying to focus harder and then screen suddenly reviewed the whole map.

"When we noticed Sonic was missing, I already thought of pinpointing his location," Tails hopped out of his seat and flew towards a drawer, he reached down his hand into the drawer and pulled out a watch-like device. It looked very advanced, the mechanics of it were left unknown to Shadow and Rouge but both had speculated that it may have something to do with Sonic.

"If he is carrying this item. " Tails continued, presenting the fine piece of work to the two agents. Shadow walked closer as Tails gave it to him, not really feeling uncomfortable with Shadow touching it. The black and red hedgehog began to observe the tech on his hand, he really was making sure he had covered the whole thing cause he even considered asking Tails more about it.

When he did, Tails began to show the mechanics of the watch. That's when the two knew that it was actually a communicator watch, it can, of course, let the user communicate with several others who have the same kind of tech in their hands, or if someone is trying to talk to them through a computer. The young fox continues to talk about how the communicator would come in handy into finding Sonic.

He convinced Shadow and Rouge that Sonic somehow had his communicator with him in his absence and Tails, along with Amy, had been trying to pinpoint the exact location from Sonic's communicator ever since they first arrived at the lab.

But Shadow didn't believe all of what Tails had explained to him and Rouge. If Tails and Amy had been trying to find Sonic this whole time, why haven't they been trying to find him rather than getting themselves cooped up in the lab?

Shadow had immediately asked Tails of his suspicions, but Tails had immediately provided a pretty solid and reliable answer, "That's what Knuckles told us before he left. " He said, referring to the red echidna, as Rouge perked her head up and looked towards Tails.

"Wait... Knuckles was here too? " She asked hastily, Tails secretly rolled his eyes and nodded his head, "Yep, he was here as well, trying to find Sonic, but he didn't like sitting down in front of a computer all day so he volunteered on ground check. " Tails said, providing more information to the agents.

"And by ground check, you mean-" Shadow was cut off by an alert from Tails computer, the fox instantly went back to his monitor and tried to see what was wrong. Then after he did, Tails sighed with tiredness, "What was that? " Shadow asked Tails, who looked really annoyed by something but worried as well.

"It's Knuckles. He's at Angel Island and he's in trouble." Shadow and Round both nodded at each other before Rouge flew out of the lab, "I'll go get your motorbike ready!" She yelled before she flew out, Shadow looked back at the young fox and grabbed the communicator, "Can you contact with me with this? "

Tails let Shadow take the communicator with him, but before he left he advised Tails to stay in the lab to communicate with him and Rouge, while also looking after Amy. Shadow glided out the lab and, by cue, his motorbike is already in front of him, with Rouge deciding to stick with flying.

The grim anti-hero jumped on his motorbike and drove away with Rouge following behind while flying.

* * *

Elsewhere, a red echidna growled lowly, opening one eye before a metal leg stomped on the ground from the opposite side from where he is.


	4. Falling Angel

He began to get nervous but he stayed on his feet and just kept on running into the jungle of the floating island, trying to lead his enemy into a clear area. He had been fighting for over an hour since he had entered the remains of the island since he tracked down whatever he's looking for to the secluded ruins of his home, Angel Island.

Knuckles can barely hold it together, but he wasn't giving up that easily. He knew that if he loses, that... Robot will steal whatever it came for, he presumed it might be after something valuable that it had to come to Angel Island to retrieve whatever it's after. He already contacted Tails and he really needs a set of helping hands to help him out in his sticky situation.

Grunting, he jumped off from atop a medium-sized hill and perfectly landed on the ground, skidding his green and red shoes against the dirt and began a fighting stance, ready to face whatever was chasing him.

The bushes and jungle leaves rustled and out came a robotic hedgehog, completely made out of metal, Knuckles growled lowly and stared at the robot red eyes, a robot mind you, who is a robotic duplicate of the hero of Mobius. The red echidna continued to stare at Metal Sonic while he walked around slowly towards it, Metal's claws sharpened as Knuckles began to drift closer towards the robot.

And then instantly, Metal ran at full speed towards Knuckles, ready to plunge its sharpened claws into the echidna's body, but Knuckles acted fast and jumped out of way, avoiding Metal's attack.

As he was up in the air, he began to descend down with his fist aiming at Metal, the metal robot looked as if it's scowling at Knuckles but of course, it wasn't running away from a fight. Metal focused his robotic eyes onto the Knuckles, trying to copy the echidna's strength and replicate it.

Knuckles noticed Metal's reaction and reacted to it by gliding away to another clear area nearby, unable to let Metal copy his strength, leading for Metal to run off fast to where Knuckled glided to.

When he was there, he turned his head around every corner, trying to find Knuckles. About to give up, he decided to return to his original agenda and steal the Master Emerald. But in surprise, Knuckles punched Metal's back and drove the robot onto the ground.

The red echidna gave it all in and continuously punched Metal, in hopes that the robot would be too damaged to proceed. But it wasn't enough as Metal shifted his eyes at Knuckles and managed to turn the tables and throw Knuckles off of him by kicking the echidna off. It retaliated by using his claws and cut Knuckles in an instant, making Knuckles to grunt in pain and immediately gave Metal a death glare.

As Metal was about to claw at him again, this time making his sharp metal claws bigger, a blast of chaos energy swept him away across the area. Knuckles was dumbfounded but as soon as he turned his head from where the blast came from, his eyes see Shadow and Rouge just from the distance.

"Hey there Knuxie, long time no see. " Rouge said, clearly starting to flirt with the red echidna, annoying Knuckles and making him relieved at the same time. He jumped up from where he is and crash-landed near where the two G.U.N. agents are.

"Thanks. Although I was hoping for a hammer and a giant plane to help me out, this works too. " He said, he really thought that Tails and Amy were going to help him out but he guessed that they'd be too tired to even receive his message if Shadow and Rouge didn't show up.

But they were cut short when Metal arose from the ground, covered in dirt and grass, its eyes started to glow brighter and in a blink of an eye, running full speed towards them, "Move out!" Shadow yelled aggressively, Rouge and Knuckles followed him as they both got out of the way before Metal can even slice through them.

"Chaos Spear! " As Shadow yelled these words, in the palm of his hand appeared a glowing yellow spear made entirely out of chaos energy, and threw it directly at the robot enemy, which detected the imminent threat approaching it and ran out as the spear flew through the ground and in a matter of seconds exploded upon contact.

Metal acted immediately after this and attempted to make a move on Rouge, who then saw Metal coming out on her and used a homing attack on her, but the white bat thought fast and moved out of the way, while also using her powerful kick, sending the robot onto a tree.

But Metal reacted quickly and used his ability of flight to slow down from hitting on the tree, knowing it may finally knock him out for good. He turned his head towards Shadow one more time and ran fast and readied his claws to rip the black hedgehog to shreds.

He was this close until Knuckles came in afterward and smashed his head and drove it, along with his body into the ground, Shadow walked up to the metal robot and dusted if the dirt that is covering it's face, he then proceeded to open a hatch and rip Metal's wires, finally deactivating it.

Rouge flew down and dusted herself, "Did you get him? " She asked Shadow, who looked down at Metal and crouched down and looked inside the robot's wires. Knuckles ran up to them and upon seeing Shadow tampering with Metal, looked at Rouge, giving her a confused look, Rouge's only reply to him that she doesn't know what Shadow was doing either.

Shadow kept on digging in the robot's mechanics and hidden inside was a small chip attached to some sort of motherboard and swiped it off, he narrowed his eyes and stood up, showing the device to Rouge and Knuckles.

Rouge raised a brow, "What is that? " She asked, pointing at the small chip.

"It's a memory chip, knowing Eggman, he probably built Metal Sonic with a memory drive or at least a device that carries Metal's memories, " Shadow explained and tucked it into his quills, he turned towards Knuckles and walked up to him, "Do you mind telling us why Metal was here? " He asked the Knuckles, needing why the metal duplicate made its way to Angel Island.

"No idea, I spotted him with... Whatever was causing mayhem and followed him here. Other than that, that's about it. " Knuckles said, not getting too much info as it is, making Shadow and Rouge hit a dead end to whoever the threat is. But what they both know, that Eggman may be beyond it pulling the strings.

Shadow lifted his arm up and contacted Tails, "You got all that? " He asked the kitsune.

Tails appeared as a hologram from the communicator and nodded his head, "Yup, heard you've got a memory chip from Metal Sonic, mind bringing it to me so I can take a look? " He requested for the memory chip, Shadow looked at the chip and sighed.

He clutched the item in his hand took a full minute to think, "No," Before Tails can anything, Shadow threw the chip to Knuckles as the echidna grabbed it mid-air, "Knuckles will be bringing the chip to you. Me and Rouge have to find Sonic and that... Chaotic being of destruction. " Tails nods his head and logged off.

"So, where did you first found Metal?" Rouge asked Knuckles, he then said that he saw Metal taking orders from someone in one of Dr. Eggman's old hidden bases. One of the bases Shadow and Rouge were familiar with, but not Knuckles or any of the others, until now.

Knuckles ran off to go to Tails' lab, while Shadow and Rouge stayed behind to get ready to go to the ocean, while Shadow is gonna get his bike ready, he asked Rouge to bring Metal with them, he thinks that maybe one of the badniks may come for Metal and he wants to make sure Eggman won't have one of his top enforcers.

Rouge said obliged and was able to dig out Metal from the ground and carried him on her back, but inside Metal's head, was another memory chip and reactivated him. Metal's eyes awakened and saw Rouge carrying him and, like a monster the robot is, dug his claws into Rouge's back and pumped in some sort of sedative into her, affecting her nervous system paralyzed as well.

Rouge screamed in pain as Metal had rendered her motionless, Rouge's body felt heavy and came tumbling down to her feet and laid down. Metal lowered his head and took out his claws from the white bat's back and watched Rouge fall into slumber and sharpened his claws and was about to claw the ivory bat.

But then, a spear of pure chaos energy struck Metal into his chest and finally exploded Metal Sonic into smithereens. Shadow gasped and ran up towards Rouge and held her in his arms, he then noticed the marks on her back and noticed the sedative leaking out. He growled and watched as pieces of metal scrap fell from the sky and, by the distance, fell Metal's head as it stuck onto a rock.

Shadow was disgusted and had enough of the robot and walked away to his motorbike with Rouge in his arms, still asleep and paralyzed from her head to her feet. He brought Rouge to Tails' lab and there, Tails assured Shadow that Rouge will be fine, Tails did say that the sedative that Metal injected into her, if overdosed, would kill her.

Upon hearing this, Shadow in the inside had already feared that if he may bring Rouge again she may fall down again, he never should've let her carry Metal, he should've been the one to bring Metal, not her. Her well-being is important to him, but this mission is already delayed enough and he had to leave without her.

He doesn't wanna risk her getting hurt or almost dying again, he cared for Rouge, maybe even more so. Amy had also awoken and decided to care for Rouge while Knuckles decided to keep on looking and Shadow to go to an old Eggman base. Tails continued to stay in contact with Shadow and Knuckles, but he has been thinking about what really happened to Sonic.

Is Sonic really gone, is he missing, or is he...?

* * *

Somewhere, a man with a stylized mustache turned off the monitor after Metal had exploded and walked over to another person, "He'sdone his part, now do yours. " He said, the person nodded and in their hand, is a chaos emerald and wasted no more time and teleported away.


	5. The Inevitable

When Shadow left the Mystic Ruins to the ocean, Amy was merely standing there, watching him leave with his motorbike. The pink hedgehog sighed softly as her soft quills flowed by the wind, she closed her eyes and had a flashback of the beloved blue hedgehog.

Her memories of her cherished moments with Sonic began to flood her entire head, but in a moment she immediately frowned and shook her head out of her daydream. She has no time for daydreaming and has to help out in any way she can, but for now, she must tale care for Shadow's sleeping partner.

She walked back inside the lab and towards Tails, who was already on the computer looking a little busy in his own world. Amy blinked suddenly and was a bit annoyed that she didn't get to be in the action, but caring for an ally is her top priority right now.

Although she is occupied with Rouge, she had noticed Shadow acting a little bit different since he came into the lab with the sleeping white bat. He seemed worried and more troubled, something he rarely shows, especially around other people. The look in his eye as well, he felt guilt.

It made Amy think that he may have some sort of deep connection with Rouge, just by looking at his own face and eyes, he seemed vulnerable around her, but more so when she's injured in some way.

But seeing as Rouge is still asleep and resting, Amy decided to see what Tails was up to, "Hey Tails, " She said as she walked over to his desk and placed her arms on the table. "What's up? "

Tails jumped a little by surprise and glared at Amy but sighed calmly, "I'm... Fine. I've just been thinking... " He said, not wanting to tell Amy what he was thinking about, "But for now, " He then moved the mouse and clicked on a specific location on the map, overlooking a part of the ocean. "Let's see what Shadow found. "

*

Inside a G.U.N. submarine, Shadow navigated across the ocean to Eggman's abandoned base under the depths of the bodies of water, he's already got his wet suit ready just in case and the other few things required. The commander did offer him a crew to join him since Rouge is out of commission but he refused, they were not surprised by the refusal at all.

He's already nearing the base by just a few more miles, so in his few hours of alone time, he has been thinking of his partner from when he started to dive in the ocean. He can see the images of her injury in his head, and the thought of Rouge dying if the sedative overdosed.

No.

He was just in over his head, the good thing is that Rouge is safe with Tails and Amy, he doesn't have to get worried about her right now.

Then, the radar suddenly picked up a signal from what Shadow can think of is a base or underwater lair, he followed the signal and finally came across an old, rusty underwater base.

Seaweed stuck in between the gaps of the base, the rust clearly seen and a few sea creatures coming in and out. Shadow huffed and pulled himself together and put on his wet suit and immediately got out of the sub then made his way into the entrance of the old base. Inside the of the lair was eerie and made him feel as if though it was a haunted house he was entering, courtesy of Rouge introducing him to the concept of Halloween.

As he soon drifted close to a section of the structure, he found a surface area and swam up and climbed out. Quickly, he got up to his feet, seeing that he is inside some sort of control room. There was a monitor, control pad, wires on the floor, anything Shadow suspected he'd find.

His communicator activated and presented Tails as a hologram, "Anything? " He asks, Shadow took his eyes off of Tails and examined the area, it was... wet.

But to what caught his eye that some of the machines and schematics were activated recently and there seemed to be signs of life inside. He and Tails spotted prints on the ground, Shadow then analyzed the impression of the prints via a feature on the communicator enabling him to analyze it and send it directly to Tails.

Tap

Tap

Tap

Shadow's ears perked up and he switched his focus on the tapping, it startled Tails so Shadow turned off the communicator and narrowed his eyes and kept quiet, trying to hear the tapping once more.

Tap

There it was again, Shadow positioned himself, looking at a dark corner where he heard the sound coming from, "Show yourself. " He snarled, wanting to face his foe. And quickly, a dark, shadowy figure ran pass Shadow and managed to claw the black hedgehog on the face.

Shadow winced as he felt the blood on his cheek flooding his muzzle, he growled and wiped the blood away, the shadow's walked out...

Another Metal Sonic????

Shadow's eyes widened but didn't even bother and proceeded to attack, with his hover shoes he ran full speed at the metal duplicate of his rival and attempted to punch him but, the robot catches Shadow's hand easily. The black blur fell back and was thrown across the room, hitting his back on the old rickety walls of the base.

A drop of water dropped upon his face, he looked up and saw the roof falling apart, Shadow knew one blow on the walls and water will soon flood the entire base, and water is what he needed. The dark hedgehog stood up and put on his clear sphere attached to an oxygen tank on his back.

"Come and get me, you pathetic piece of metal. " He taunted, The metal duplicate's eyes glowed red and ran up towards Shadow with a punch to the face. Shadow reacted quickly and moved aside as the robot hit the walls hard and above their heads, the roof shook violently.

Then finally, the roof collapsed and the water started to flood the entire base, not having enough time, Shadow made his way to the monitor and punched into it, pulling out the motherboard.

Once the water started to fill, reaching Shadow's head, he immediately swam out the base and into the sub outside. He turned on the sub and turned around, making his immediate escape.

But for a moment he turned around and miraculously, the other Metal Sonic survives and looked unfazed by the water surrounding it. Shadow knew that it may see him, so he turned on cloaking mode and hid the sub in plain sight.

His communicator then begun to blink twice before Tails appeared before Shadow, in a hologram of course, "What happened?? Are you okay? " He asks frantically.

"I'm fine, " Shadow answered bluntly at the worried kitsune, before flipping the motherboard in his hand, clutched it with force but not enough for it to break. "And

so was my foe. "

**_*_**

Amy left the room, catching the black hedgehog's attention and he immediately asked, "How is she? " he asks Amy.

The female turned her eyes to the right, "Conscious, " She said, walking over to Shadow. "And she wants to see you. "

Shadow sighed aggressively and stood up, following Amy as she led him into the room. There, on the bed, Rouge laid there, feeling weak from the sedative but had enough strength to turn her head to the side, seeing her partner looking at her with worry and relief.

She chuckled, "It's been a while since I've seen you worried about me. " The ivory bat commented, feeling the need to lighten up the mood despite her current state.

Tails, who was standing beside her, snickers a little and spoke with wise words. "Listen Rouge, even though you're body is paralyzed, Metal's claws were so big that some of your blood was lost. So maybe a day you can get back up on your feet. "

Rouge nodded and Shadow requested for alone time with his paralyzed partner, Tails, of course, agreed to those terms, knowing how close the two agents are with each other, but he doesn't realize that it goes much deeper than that.

He and Amy left the room, leaving only with Shadow and Rouge to talk.

Shadow looked down, Rouge saw this and sighed as she was able to lift her arm and place it gently on Shadow's cheek, she really misses her partner. "It wasn't your fault. "

"It **was **my fault. I shouldn't have left you with Metal, I should've done that myself and now I got you stuck in a bed and we still have a mission to do. " He began to doubt her answer, making Rouge laugh inside seeing how he really cared for her well-being.

She stared at him, at his cold, dead red eyes with her ocean teal ones, once Shadow catches her gaze, he stopped ranting, just how Rouge liked it. "I'm beginning to think it wasn't just the mission that you're worried about. "

The crimson blur stopped for a moment after Rouge said that, then after realizing what she was saying, he felt something.

Like something making him feel emotions, it was unintentional to him but for his feelings, it was the truth. Because of this, Shadow was unable to keep in his pack of emotions and in and to Rouge's surprise, he blushed.

The bat raised her brow by Shadow's sudden urge of emotion flowing out his conscience, it was something unbelievable. He was never the type to ever show certain emotion, he was all about pride and justice, but this...

This was new, especially to him.

Feeling a bit nervous she may have hit a nerve, Rouge gulped and attempted to reach Shadow's shoulder with her hand,

"Shadow? "

Making her almost jump, but couldn't, Shadow grabbed her hand and squeezed it, but it didn't hurt her, her hand felt... warm. Rouge looked at Shadow, the black hedgehog stared back at her, but starling her in the inside, is that he was leaning closer to her, not letting go of her hand at all.

It made her stomach flutter inside, it felt weird but right in the same time, seeing as to how she didn't wanna back away from Shadow, even though she was supposed to feel uncomfortable.

She followed his lead and was able to lean her head closer to his, slowly closing her eyes for the inevitable. Rouge can feel one of Shadow's gloved hands hold her face gently, as he then slipped his other with Rouge's hand still clutched and held her face entirely.

Rouge can feel Shadow's hot breath on her face, it made her feel warm and fuzzy, the feeling was driving her crazy. Surprisingly, she felt her lips brush against Shadow's, that was the last straw, she wasn't able to hold it in, so did Shadow.

They went all in and kissed...

Briefly, that is.

"Hey you guys done-" Tails came bursting in the room, feeling a little impatient and walked into Shadow and Rouge's kissing session, startling the two agents and looked directly at Tails with shock and anger.

"Uhhhhhhhh... " The young fox was in a loss for words.

"...uh, please leave!" Rouge demanded and Tails didn't wait and left the room fast.

The white bat sighed but remembered what happened and looked at Shadow, who was just as confused as she was.

What did they just do?


	6. Runaway

Inside the lab, Tails was snoring whilst his computer was in progress of analyzing Metal's memory, but since it'll take a while the young fox had nothing to do but sleep.

Upon seeing this, Shadow grew impatient and wants to track down whoever was in that base. He knew that this person may be down there for a reason, and it was a sole purpose of theirs.

But Shadow knew if he were to leave Rouge, who was currently eating, she would get mad at him for ditching her. The black hedgehog didn't want to confront his partner right now after... what happened.

He never expected it to happen, especially when it's himself. Much like any other person, he expects himself to focus. Shadow didn't want this, but, he sort of wanted it to happen.

Just then, Amy exited Rouge's room and saw the frustrated Shadow and groaned, _"Oh great, what is it this time? " _she thought.

She then approached the black hedgehog, "Is there something wrong, Shadow? " She asks, hiding her annoyance from him well enough for him to answer back politely to the pink hedgehog,

"Nothing that would concern you. " He said, crossing his arms and walked over to a dark corner, clearly implying he doesn't wanna be disturbed.

Amy sighed by this notion, but knew why he was being like this,

"You two what??? " Amy gasped, but soon Rouge shushed her as best as she can, as she was still paralyzed. The pink hedgehog covered her mouth and lifted her eyelids in complete shock. "I cannot believe that... "

The ivory bat groaned and closed her eyes shut, not really wanting to talk about any of this to anyone. After she and Shadow kissed, the black hedgehog immediately teleported leaving a shocked expression on Rouge's face.

She wanted to go after him but she has to stay in bed, and she also has to deal with Tails if he ever enters again and asks about what he saw. Rouge was very embarrassed, despite not much people know about this except for her, Shadow and Tails.

Then Amy came in to bring her food and asked about the shocked Tails after he entered the room, which Rouge was very reluctant to tell her about but knew Amy doesn't wanna leave without a proper answer.

But she regretted quickly.

"So let me get this straight, you two were talking and then out of the ordinary, you and Shadow just... kissed??? " Amy recalls what Rouge had told her, the bat sighed and nodded her head, making Amy more surprised knowing Shadow would do something like that, it wasn't like him.

But deep down inside, the pink heroine always knew there was something up with Shadow and Rouge's relationship, even though the two themselves tell her that nothing is going on between them, with Shadow being the one to put it bluntly to her.

Now knowing about what happened, Amy finally had her suspicions confirmed after Rouge had told her, but since Amy knew of the white bat, she knew that Rouge doesn't want anyone to know so she promised the thief she'll keep her mouth shut, to which Rouge thanked her.

She didn't wanna look back at her previous memory and decides to focus on finding Sonic, so Amy walked over to Tails and slightly chuckled at seeing the young kitsune drool in his sleep. She looked at his monitor and saw the analysis was complete.

Happy, she shook Tails awake, but it wasn't such a happy wake up call for Tails, "Wh-wha???? what is it?! " He jumped up, awake. Amy looked at him with wide eyes and laughed, amused by Tails reaction.

Tails himself, however, was annoyed by Amy and groaned but soon became gals as he saw the analysis was complete, assuming Amy woke him up to tell him this. He continued opening up the memory drive and looked into it, finding several memory files, Tails searched for the and previous ones.

Meanwhile, Shadow was finally reliveerelieve to see Tails and Amy looking right into Metal's memory. But like himself, he kept his mouth shut and let his eyes wander around the lab, now that he's at the corner he has full view of what's in front of him.

That's when he noticed, a blue device sitting on top of a desk drawer, it was just there, untouched but looked like it was functional. Curious, he walked over to the device and observed it, he looked over at Tails and Amy, he was sure they don't want him touching anything but nevertheless, teleported away using Chaos Control and arrived at G.U.N. and was able to get a team to look into the tiny gizmo.

After only waiting about half an hour, Shadow was approached by a G.U.N. agent with the news. "We're done digging into that thing you gave us, and what you had in your hands was a tracking device, now bear with me here... You might think it was nothing, but guess what else we found."

Shadow followed the agent and was presented by a hologram screen, "We looked into it further and we found out this tracking device was specialized to track down one specific person, "

"Sonic The Hedgehog."

Shadow was caught by surprise, Sonic?? But why would Tails have a tracking device specifically for Sonic? Unless there was something else he wasn't telling Shadow. "Is there anything else? "

The agent nodded and continued to present Shadow with a slimy substance, Shadow then proceeded to touch it, followed by the agent moving it away from the hedgehog, " I wouldn't do that if I were you. " He warns, knowing something, something that he is yet to tell Shadow. " You're lucky you didn't touch this while you brought the tracker here. "

Shadow was confused and demands for an answer, to which the agent replied. "I brought this to the lab when I saw it and when I got the results, they were shocking. Turns out this goop had the capabilities of some sort of virus, when touched, it immediately takes over the host, anything that's alive. "

The black hedgehog narrows his eyes, he needs to have a chat with Tails.

"How in Mobius would you forget to contain that thing? " Amy continues to yap at Tails, who was stressed and annoyed by Amy's yapping.

"I don't know okay?! We just have to find it before someone-"

"Gets infected? "

The two jumped in surprise and looked to where they heard the voice, walked out from the darkness was Shadow, holding the device in hand and in the other was a small container with the substance inside.

Tails was sweating intensely as he saw Shadow holding the device but more when he saw the virus, waiting for its next victim. The young fox knew he can't hide the truth anymore. "I'm guessing you want answers. "

"Damn straight. "

Amy looked at Tails and nodded, as the young fox sat down on the nearest chair, he sighs. "I'm gonna start when the attacks started. Sonic wanted to figure out what was causing them so he decides to confront Eggman with his suspicions, but it has been a while since we ever got an attack from Eggman himself so Amy told Sonic to go to his recent hideout. "

"So he did, we placed a tracker on him just in case he gets lost, I would've just track him using his communicator but he constantly gets it broken during any battle. While he was in there, he saw a glimpse of Eggman's true plan on one of the computers there, but then he heard something lurking in the darkness and... we lost his signal. Me and Amy noticed that the tracker wasn't moving but when I tracked down Sonic's communicator, it was moving. "

"When Knuckles came to talk about the rampage across Mobius, we told him all what happened and he ran off to Eggman's old lair to look for Sonic, but he came back with Sonic's tracker. " He finishes as he buries his face in his hands, while Amy looked down saddened by the sudden turn of events.

"Then what happened to Sonic's communicator? " Shadow asked.

"We don't know. Before you guys came here, the signal died. " Tails said. Shadow was still suspicious, but seeing how Tails and Amy was desperate to find Sonic and put an end to this rampaging threat, he had to continue to work with them.

Then,

The sound of a broken window echoed across the lab, alarming the three people who by hearing this rushed to the source of the sound, but Shadow decides to see if his partner was still in bed and safe. But when he did, his eyes widened in shock.

The room seemed to be intact, no sign of a struggle, but Rouge's bed was empty, the sheets were ruffled to the left. Shadow then found the source of the sound, there was the broken window he was looking for. He ran up to the window and sees glass outside, his hands then clutched the window sill, the feeling of rage and worry fueled him.

He knew right away he had to find Rouge and bring her back safe, she must've eavesdropped on their conversation but why would she run off just like that? Shadow heard a female gasp from behind him and sees Amy covering her mouth after gasping from what Shadow had discovered, Tails came in afterwards and observed the room.

After looking out the window, he turns around to face Amy and Shadow, "Well... I can say the window was broken from the inside, so it's-" Tails was then cut off by Shadow,

"I know. Rouge ran off, is that it? " He spat, impatience growing inside of him quickly, needing to find his missing partner. Tails was surprised by this, but he bet Shadow wants to find her fast.

"Yeah, that's very likely, so we there wasn't any sign of force entry in here, she just ran off. " Tails continues his sentence.

Amy then stood up from Rouge's bed, with a serious expression look on her face, "Where do you think she is? " She asks nonchalantly, wanting to finally get serious about all of this. Shadow laid his head down, before remembering their previous conversation.

That's when he gained an idea.

"Where exactly is this lair Sonic disappeared at? "


	7. Dead or Alive?

A surge of pain hit across her spine, the feeling continued to ache as she can feel like she's about to fall hard on the ground, but she held herself fast and grunts, "This better be worth it." She mutters to herself, her voice was sore and full of discomfort.

The white bat had now found herself in the rocky plains of a valley, looking for Eggman's old lair. But as she does, she couldn't stop thinking about her gloomy partner reacting to her departure, she knew he may be mad at her for doing an act like this.

Other than that, she tries to fight off the urge of anger towards Tails and Amy for hiding a huge lead that she and Shadow needed in order to help find Sonic, it infuriated her to finally doing this her way. Although she started doubting that her action can cause a bigger problem, she looked back, at that very moment, when she and Shadow had... kissed. Rouge just couldn't process what Shadow had done, did he do that out of his own agenda, or was it because a new side of him opened itself to her?

It had to be something new to Shadow since Rouge knew he does not know any concept of romance, but this moment really gives Rouge a new perception, seeing Shadow in a whole new light.

Rouge began to giggle, the thought of actually having a romantic relationship with the Shadow The Hedgehog, The Ultimate Life Form, the thought amuses her, but also gave her some sort of a feeling, which she chose to ignore.

Having Shadow as a love interest is strange in and of itself. If Shadow did have a relationship with someone, he'd leave them cause he knows he has other better things to do, and mostly cause he's never really been a social person if Rouge can say so herself.

The thought, however, it's been through her mind lately, plaguing her to the brink that she has considered she may hold an interest in the Shadow, but she never thought herself to be in a relationship with her own partner. But it made her feel tingly, it felt she was cold but was warm, a strange feeling indeed. Rouge never knew she could feel these mixed feelings, especially towards Shadow.

Realizing she was thinking about her partner again, she shook her head and snarled in a fit of rage, with all she can think about was Shadow. Trying to find Eggman's base is her task on hand, she kept on flying, not resting until she's found what she's looking for.

The journey to the valley is now where Shadow will be arriving, bringing along Tails, Knuckles, and Amy for the ride, requiring a group to help him out with his next foe, needing help now that his partner has now gone to do things her way.

But with Shadow, of course, the ride was really quiet. It was excruciating for Amy, cause she's more talkative than Sonic, Tails still felt guilty by hiding an important piece of information without telling Shadow about it.

Tails couldn't help the feeling but think about what he saw back at the lab, seeing Shadow and Rouge just kiss like that, it was the last thing Tails expected to see in his mind. Like Rouge, he knew it was unlikely. He took a moment and glanced at Shadow, his face tells the young genius he may not want to talk about such a topic. For a guy like him, Tails would rather keep his mouth shut, just like everyone else.

Knuckles was then filled in when Tails called him, he couldn't believe why Tails and Amy would do all that. When asked by Shadow if he knew all about it, Tails convinced the black hedgehog that Knuckles had no knowledge of what he and the pink hedgehog had done.

Shadow though, he was quieter than all of them, a typical thing for him to be but he kept his mind focused on one thing, for now, finding his partner. He just wants to facepalm from Rouge's stupidity, she was still injured and she can't just run away like that.

His chest was pounding though, he felt something bad coming their way.

Back to Rouge, she landed safely on the rocky ground, her heels clicking as her eyes focused on what's in front of her, the white bat sighed with tiredness and rocked her head both front and back before breathing in.

Rouge closed her eyes for a moment and soon opened them, walking up inside a dark cave. Her fur starts to shiver, just as she enters the catacombs, she shuddered from just a single rock that she would step on.

It disturbed her, but it didn't scare her enough to run out the other way and she continued on her way instead. The cave began to get darker and darker the farther Rouge ventured inside, but the dark wasn't a problem for her.

She breathed in, and lets out a screech, her ears perked up a little until she started walking again. Unknown to her, her shrieking howls echoed through and out of the cave, letting the others hear her.

"What in Mobius was that? " Knuckles wondered, hearing Rouge's distant wail.

Shadow huffed, they were nearing his partner's whereabouts. "It's her, follow that screech. "

They all nodded and followed Shadow's intuition as he led them towards a cave. Meanwhile, Rouge soon found herself in the main room of the lair, finding a giant computer just in front of her. On a hunch, she ran up to the computer and began hacking into the security cameras.

As she was typing still, her ears shifted, she soon stood into place and focuses her hearing, listening closely to what she can identify as someone or people circling around her.

The sound stopped.

_Whoosh!_

Rouge acted fast and pinned down someone with red fur in a blink of an eye, the white thief realized who she had apprehended and let the red echidna go, chuckling. "You should be careful who you ambush, hun~"

"Nice to see you too, Rouge. " Knuckles replied annoyed while receiving a hand from Amy, who was right behind him.

Emerging from the shadows was Rouge's partner, with a scowl on his face, "That was stupid of you, you know that? " He began to lecture her, making Rouge roll her eyes.

"It was nothing, my legs were fine while you were interrogating Tails and Amy, " Rouge responds trying to show Shadow she's alright, it also reminded Shadow of his last conversation with the fox and the female hedgehog.

She turned around to face the computer and smirked, "And I made us some progress, just hacked into the security cameras and I've got us footage. " The bat said, pointing at the computer screen.

Tails beamed at the bat, "This is good then! We can check out the footage on the day Sonic disappeared. " The fox walked over to the computer and clicked on the video, as the others huddles around him quickly.

* * *

**_Security Footage_**

* * *

**"Hey Tails, I'm here! And I've gotta say, this place is a dump. " Sonic chuckled at his communicator, making Tails laugh as well along with Amy. **

**"Hasn't been always a dump? I heard this place is gonna be turned into a scrapyard soon." The young fox joked around, Sonic snickered of the thought of an Eggman Lair rebuilt into a yard for a bunch of junk.**

**"But don't you think that's a little dangerous though? " Amy asks the two, Sonic raised a brow but to him, it didn't seem like a big of a deal that's worth worrying about.**

**"I don't know, why question it?" Tails furthered the conversation, but Sonic chose to forget the conversation and just kept on trudging the fark path until he awaits further instructions from Tails of where to go next.**

**"Think about it, there's still so much badnik remains and a lot of useful information there that if were** **turned into a bunch of junk, then all of that info would've been turned to scrap and all our hard work would go down to square one."**

**Sonic raised his head in thought and hummed. "Huh, you got a point there, Ames. To be safe, I'm just gonna raid the heck out of this place, where to next, Tails?"**

**"Turn right and you'll probably see the main hub area, that's where the computer might be."**

**" 'Probably'?" Amy repeats what Tails said.**

**" 'Might'?" Sonic followed.**

**"Alright, alright, I get it! Stop ganging up on me, jeez." Tails grumbled whilst the two hedgehogs chuckled at him. But he wasn't wrong when Sonic caught a glimpse of a computer just in front of him. So he picked up the pace and sped up until he was face to face with the monitor.**

**Faintly, from the other side of the communicator, Tails began jumping around with glee, "Haha, yes! This is great! Now we can access some of Eggman's recent plans and finally put a stop to all of this madness." He** **exclaimed proudly that he sounded like he was about to fall off his chair.**

**Sonic stifled a laugh and continued to hack his way into the computer, with the help of Tails of course, and was able to access a ton of blueprints, future plans, and a bunch of other important pieces of information. The hedgehog chuckled as he scanned through the entire computer. "Oh wow!! It might be the adrenaline talking, but I think we can take care of this rampage in just 5 minutes!"**

**"Sounds like a plan, now try connecting me into the computer so I can download all that stuff you found then we're good to go!" Tails said, but before Sonic can connect Tails' computer to the one in front of him, his ears picked up a clang nearby. It seemed to have alerted Tails and Amy as well, seeing as they began asking Sonic tons of questions.**

**"Is someone there??" Tails asked.**

**"No... that can't be. That base hasn't been touched in forever!" Amy claimed, the sound of disbelief heard from her tone, which made Sonic more wary of what's going on. He tried to cancel out any noise he hears and concentrated on any sounds near him.** **Suddenly!**

**"What the-!"**

* * *

**_End Footage_**

* * *

..._Silence..._


	8. Do You Want My Help or Not?

**_...Silence..._**

"W-wait...?! That's was literally it??? There's nothing else caught on camera?" The red echidna growled in annoyance. Tails and Amy groaned while the two agents stood there with pondering thoughts. Shadow took a step forward to fill the silence.

"Tails, Knuckles came here and found that tracking device, right?"

The fox in question rose his head and nodded a yes, "Then how come you didn't tell him to check the computer when you had the chance?" Asked Shadow.

"Dunno. It wasn't exactly functioning when he first came here. I couldn't figure out why."

"Well, this thing is definitely up and running now," Rouge said, pointing at the computer with her thumb. "Is that all you have to say?"

"Yeah..."

Amy pinched herself between her eyes in frustration, the slim chance of finding Sonic has now become nothing but a dead lead, "Jeez... I... I need a breather, I gotta step outside for a while..." Was all she could say before walking off, slowly as a throbbing pain in her heart starts to make her sob quietly.

Watching the pink hedgehog leave the base prompted Shadow to remember about Rouge's actions previously, which was, of course, her running off even though she was instructed to rest until she's fully recovered.

Tails began to feel uneasy now that their back to a dead-end, but he looked back at the giant computer in front of them, "Maybe... Maybe if I recover the data storage in this thing, I can at least find out what Sonic found in here that was so important." He deduced, but quickly, Shadow noted that's Tails' voice seemed desperate like he was clinging on to more lingering possibilities.

But pushing that observation aside, Shadow considered that notion and proceeded to help Tails rummage through all the tangled wires inside of the computer. As they continue to search, Rouge decides to pay attention to any cameras nearby, seeing as to how the last minute when Sonic was attacked, the camera broke.

Immediately after positioning herself on the spot where Sonic was standing, she looked up and saw a busted up security camera. Smiling, she flew up and took a short look at the barely functioning device. Rouge knew that it might be pretty pointless to bring the camera since they already have the footage, she noticed scratch marks on the right side.

Her eyes squinted curiously, as she slid her gloved hands on the marks. But before she can brainstorm any further, she was disturbed by Tails laughing with delight. It didn't bother her though, she's already checked out the camera anyway, so she flew back down in front of Shadow and Tails, her eyes already looking at a cartridge that the fox got out of the computer.

"This is great! Hopefully, this is still functioning well." Tails mused, which reminded Shadow something important.

"That reminds me, while I was at that underwater base, I managed to snag the motherboard of the main computer there."

The young fox cheered after hearing such good news from Shadow as they decided to return to the lab, but Knuckles preferred to go off and look for Sonic. The four exited the base and saw Amy there with a look of dread, so Tail told her about what happened before she left, this gave Amy a push to keep going and have hope.

Knuckles left already in a hurry and Tails informed the G.U.N. agents that they'll be heading back to the lab to analyze the data storage and motherboard for more clues and info. Unfortunately for him, however, Shadow is getting impatient. "I don't care if I'm being rude, but me and Rouge aren't gonna sit idly by while you and Rose work on those."

"I guess..." Tails dropped a sweat.

Amy, though, had an idea for Shadow and Rouge. "I may have an idea of where you guys can check out."

Shadow crossed his arms. "We're listening."

"I've thought about this for a while, but there were eyewitnesses about the one who's been wreaking havoc, supposedly they flew so high up in the sky. Don't you think that's a little off?"

"If you put it that way, it does sound off," Rouge replied. "But it might be possible that there's something up there in the sky, why else would that thing fly up there for?"

Shadow tried to think it over for a few seconds, and soon turned back towards Amy. " Got it, I'll leave as soon as possible."

But the words used by the black hedgehog hit his partner's nerves before she whipped her head, shooting daggers at him, "What do you mean by that?? Are you suggesting that I'm staying behind???" The white bat retorted, a hint of annoyance visible on her face.

"You heard me, Rouge. Your body is still weak, you're staying with Rose and Tails until you're fully recovered." Shadow spat back, arms crossed and eyes closed, possibly avoiding Rouge's gaze.

"Shadow's right, Rouge. Right now, you might even suffer from muscle paralysis while in battle." Tails defended, Shadow did have a point after all and it was hard to counter.

Rouge, however, thought otherwise, "Like hell I'm backing off! There's no way that I'm not just gonna leave you running off on your own while I'm sitting on the sidelines!!" The white bat exclaimed, the feeling of rage consuming her that gave her the want of punching Shadow in the face.

The black hedgehog clicked his tongue, angered that Rouge is not getting his point at all and would rather hurt herself more, "We're not talking about this anymore." Was all he can say to her before jumping on his motorbike and rode off, leaving Rouge there, dumbfounded and enraged.

"Why I oughta-" Rouge suddenly felt a surge of pain coursing through her body, forcing the bat to collapse hardly in the rocky floor, Amy reacted fast and tried to carry Rouge towards the Tornado with Tails helping out. They placed Rouge gently inside then took off, both with a discomfort on their faces.

But as the two remained silent, Rouge fought back her groans since she can still feel a big sting in her legs reaching up to her chest, the only thing that she can move right now was her head, turning it towards Amy and Tail who are sitting in the first two seats. Her eyes began to drop down in utter exhaustion, she couldn't believe that just a single argument with Shadow would push her to her limits.

Rouge's face scrunched into a look of wrath, but not because Shadow ditched her, but because he had a reason why. She didn't really have a reason for doing so, but she is curious. What is she to Shadow exactly? Is she a tool, is an ally, heck, why is she even accompanying this guy so willingly???

Overall, all she could do was guess and lie down as Shadow is off doing all the work, leaving her in an injured state which pissed her off. She needed to go with him though since it is a mission for the two of them, after all. But deep down her raging thoughts about the ebony hedgehog, was really a desire to be with him.

She never felt these types of things before, even though the way she dresses and acts seemed to imply the opposite. Rouge couldn't take it anymore, she has to know why! Why she's doing all of this, why she's working in the government, more importantly, why she is so damn attached to her sorry excuse for a partner???

All of these assumptions filling her head start to get to her, making her feel drowsy from the headache she suddenly had. However, before she can fully fall asleep, as her eyes began to fall down, she spoke in her weakened state,

_"Do you want my help...or not...?" She fell asleep._

* * *

The wind brushed on his quills softly as he turned his head towards the direction of the breeze. The black hedgehog looked off in the distance, strangely not driving off to his next destination. He just stood there, with the same familiar scowl he wore. Shadow closed his eyes, remembering Rouge yelling at him once again.

He's been playing this over and over again in his head, it was off for him to overthink such a thing, he did the right thing anyway so why bother having the need to go and get her? Shadow began to think back, to when he and Rouge had that intimate moment while she was on bed. His eyes began to stare down the ground, now that he thought about it, it was quite rude since she was just recovering from an injury.

Wanting to focus on the mission, he tried to brush Rouge off until he gets news of her back in perfect shape. With that in mind, Shadow hopped back in his motorbike and rode off to the nearest G.U.N. base.


	9. Girl Talk

She felt nothing... at first.

But then, her chest slowly raised up and down, her body in a relaxed mood as her fingers slightly twitched. The ivory bat's eyes shook until she cracked the right one slightly open, trying to find out where the heck she is. Her gaze softens all of a sudden, she was in a resting room.

Rouge tried to move her body, but it didn't seem to respond to whatever she wants it to do, ticking her off as she rolled her eyes. She tried sitting up, her arms felt heavy. Then attempted to roll to her side, no luck. Every time Rouge wanted to position herself more comfortably, it always ends up with the bat to just give up.

Her mind suddenly flashed back to her last known memory, which was, of course, Shadow leaving her in Amy and Tails' care until she's back up on her step. Even though he was concerned with her fragile state, Rouge couldn't care less, and thus still wanted to leave and find him.

She then heard the door open and lucky for Rouge, unlike the rest of her unresponsive body, her head was able to at least turn left and right. That's when Amy walked in to see Rouge now wide awake, she instantly remembered Shadow's departure and already decided to brush it off.

"Hey Rouge, I was wondering when you'd wake up." Amy said, forcing a smile, holding a tray with food on it.

The white bat just looked at the pink hedgehog and gave her a small smile, "Hey Pinky, those for me?" She asks with a grin.

"Hehe, yeah. I was gonna wait until you're awake, it looks like I don't have to." Amy chuckles and walks over to the bedridden Rouge, firstly she put down the tray on the counter and helped the bat sit up. The gave her the tray of food, which Rouge gladly ate and started gobbling all the food in her mouth, all the while Amy sat down there with sweat dropping down at the side of her head.

_"Guess she hasn't eaten for a while..."_But soon her thoughts were interrupted when she looked at Rouge, she soon had flashbacks of when she and the thief had the conversation about Shadow, it was really awkward. Amy wanted to bring it up to confirm her suspicions but seeing Rouge struck with body paralysis put that on hold until she questions her properly. The female hedgehog still couldn't help but feel curious about the two agents' real feelings towards the other.

While Amy is off wandering in her own world, Rouge meanwhile didn't seem to mind the hedgehog sitting there. But as she continued eating, her mind kept on wondering about what is up with her gloomy partner. For once, she actually felt that there's a spark between them, a real one at that. Looking back at her past failures and deeply guarded secrets, she barely recognizes any love interests of hers.

There was Knuckles but he was a different story, it was all just for fun after all and most of all, it was just some dumb crush. But Shadow was a different case.

Never would Rouge thought that she'd run into such a stoic and edgy person like Shadow, he was definitely new to the mix of the many boys she ran into in her life. Sure, there was Sonic but to Rouge, he just looked like a freedom seeker, like her, but almost everyone seeks that. Knuckles was just a small crush and Silver and Tails? They were the naive type.

To her, meeting Shadow came off to her as nothing but a one-time meeting, but then years later they are partners at G.U.N. and to Rouge, Shadow is really the only person she's in good terms with. They bicker sometimes, but it just ends up with them making it up to one another with Rouge helping Shadow accomplish a goal of his and him accompanying her in treasure hunts.

Out of all things that Rouge and Shadow had done together something other than just being partners, she certainly didn't expect **that **to happen. The kiss was surprising, yes, but to the ivory bat, it was probably a step forward in their more personal relationship, if they ever had one.

"Are you gonna finish that?" Amy blurted out. Rouge's eyes widened and she blocked twice, seeing a loaf of bread in her hand. She began to chuckle nervously and continued to finish her last loaf. The pink hedgehog smiled but noticed Rouge staring off into space again. "Is there something up?"

Rouge looked at Amy but soon went back to eating, "Well, it's not a big of a deal." She said.

"Come on Rouge, I know you and I don't hang out much so let's try to make this one count!" All Rouge did was look at the hedgehog with a surprised look on her face, her eyes drifted off to the side and thought about it for a while as Amy backed away a little to give Rouge time to think it over.

It may come to her as odd, but she never really opened up to any friend, which includes Shadow or Omega. Rouge herself is a female, a literal girl, yet she has no acquaintances that are of her gender. Quite strange for a gal like Rouge, normally her natural charm to draw in a crowd would definitely lead the dashing ivory bat to have friends. But if she happens to be a jewel thief, who is also working as an agent for an elite military force, she has her hands full to interact with anyone outside of work.

The concept of having a friend that is a girl is new to Rouge, she didn't wanna mess this up either if she's being completely honest with herself. However, since she is going to have a conversation with Amy Rose, it may help her ease in easily into the discussion.

Coming to decision, Rouge breathed in and let out a sign, turning her head towards Amy with a smile, "Alright Pinky, you win." Those words were enough to send the pink hedgehog cheering and giggling as she clasped her hands together out of sheer enthusiasm. "That's great, thank you for considering it!"

"Y-yeah... So, about your question..."

"Yes?"

Rouge didn't know what to say that she whipped her head to the side in embarrassment, does she really wanna share her thoughts with Amy?? But as desperate as Rouge is to keep her thoughts to herself, she just had this urge to outright tell Amy about her unrequited feelings for Shadow. "I... just don't know what to do with that stubborn black hedgehog... he's always running off headfirst..."

Amy giggled and crossed her arms, her facial expression turned into an amused look, "I feel ya. You have Shadow to deal with, Sonic is almost the same. Not thinking about the consequences." She giggled with glee, feeling so relatable with Rouge's situation with the white bat's partner. Rouge raised her hand carefully towards over mouth and laughed, just imagining Sonic and Shadow both saying that they'll just get the job done in less than a minute is pure gold.

"I know! Even when we're not doing any work, he's like that! He's got to get himself a chill pill, What an idiot..." Rouge said, followed by a chuckle before looking down on her legs, thinking back of when she and Shadow first started working as teammates and partners, "But he's my idiot..." Amy's eyes widened at Rouge's last comment about Shadow, but she won't deny that Sonic, too, is her idiot.

"That's cute..." Amy said sweetly, Rouge realized what she had said and tried to lie but it was no use when it comes to Amy, it was pretty obvious anyway. "There's no need to be ashamed about it Rouge, I did speculate that this might've happened to you."

"Hehe... I have Tails to deal with, so promise me you won't tell anyone. Kay?"

The pink hedgehog raised her thumb okay with a smile on her face, "Of course! I promise." Rouge smiled as well, talking to Amy felt nice. She had never felt so open about herself before. It felt nice.

"I have another question though, " Amy started, a thought that has been in her head for quite a while now, but was unsure to ask about it. But hey, It's better than saying nothing, right? "What's it like? Being with a guy like Shadow? How exactly do you put up with him?"

A question like that seemed to give Rouge a sudden realization, her exact feelings towards Shadow. Sometimes she thinks he's handsome, sometimes stubborn, even considering that he's probably braindead. Because the thing to note about the black hedgehog is that his actions are parallel to those of Sonic's. This wasn't jumping to conclusions, the similarities are there in front of them. The way those two speedsters would run in the face of danger without thinking ahead is just pure idiotic.

What her thoughts about Shadow are vague, even to Rouge herself. She was sure that he's just a partner of hers, they work together, end of story. After trying to think it over, she wasn't sure that she gave the right answer, " Well... probably the same as Sonic, I guess... but at least he's saner. And being with Shadow," for a split second, a ton of memories started flowing in a flash in the bat's head. "...I honestly don't know..."

As if she thought of something worth laugh about, Amy began to giggle softly, which seemed to have caught Rouge off guard when she was just getting pessimistic about herself. But she was curious as well, "What are you giggling about?" Asked the confused Rouge, feeling a little left out and she doesn't like it when she doesn't know what others are thinking.

Amy then rubbed her arms, gently stroking them with her gloved hands and looked off outside the window, which was left unfixed, "It's nice to see him worry about you...He definitely is trying to be happy, for himself... and for Maria..." She said, smiling. Rouge just looked at Amy but then started to look at the broken window as well, vaguely remembering when she broke out after eavesdropping on Tails, Amy, and Shadow's conversation.

She didn't want to do it, but the feeling of Shadow caring for her and the fact that she knows the black hedgehog is always there by her side, it made Rouge crack a genuine and beautiful smile. The beautiful and cunning thief closed her eyes as a chuckle escaped her mouth.

"Yeah...He's an idiot... but I like him that way..."

* * *

There, just by the distance only being obscured with mere clouds in the sky, was an airship flying that looked Eggman-like to the eyes of the anti-hero. But before he can set foot in the flying ship, robotic noises and metallic stomping neared Shadow as he sighed. "You ready to do this, Omega?"

**"Affirmative."**

"That's all the answer I need. Let's go."


	10. Team Dark

The possibility of a security alarm was inevitable, seeing as they are on a high tech airship flying aimlessly in the sky, not caring in the world to where it's going. Things need to go smoothly if Shadow were to get anything out of this ship, he even had Omega double-check to see if there were any traps laid around the aircraft.

Stealth was not one of Shadow's strong suits, making him wish that Rouge were here with them, then she would've already led them to whoever is commandeering the flying ship. He doesn't have time to dwell on about that, though, and continued infiltrating deeper into the aircraft with Omega behind him.

But as they ventured further, something that Shadow had thought before breaking in was starting to bug him. The fact that Omega scanned the area for any robots and came out negative disturbed the black hedgehog but brushed it off, now it's getting on his nerves. He began to note the inside of the ship was old, left behind like it was nothing but garbage. Lights were flickering on and off, visible cobwebs on the corners of the ceiling, and the amount of dust seen of the floors.

Omega took the hint of the ship's condition,**_ "It seems they did not bother to tidy this airship, should I take note of this?" _**The robot asked as quietly as they or he, can. Shadow furrowed his brow and lowered his eyes, thinking about it and nodded a yes, prompting Omega to use the ship's quality and age as a clue.

Before turning a corner, Shadow leaned over the wall and cocked his gun, ready to fire and waited for Omega to give him the go. But then the robot seemed to have shifted strangely and looked surprised, Shadow saw this and lowered his gun, "What's wrong?" He asks impatiently.

**_"There appears to be something wrong with the ship, the power source at first was at the power room of this aircraft, but now it looks like it has appeared at the control room, "_** Omega's head then turned towards the corner, **_" which is right around the corner." _**Shadow's eyes widened and immediately, he took a quick peek around the corner and there, he saw a dark figure standing in the control room with large wires attached to him.

Shadow narrowed his eyes and began to power himself with Chaos energy, Omega got the gesture and already dove into the scene headfirst, shooting at the dark figure, not holding back. This person, however, seems to be unaffected by the bullets and instead, the flying pieces of iron merely ricocheted from its skin.

The figure thrusts his sharp and metallic fingers towards Omega, but they did no damage whatsoever to him, this gave Shadow enough time to throw a spear of pure chaos energy at the robot as it was hit back at the wall. Omega stepped back, now fighting side by side with Shadow, whose gaze turned into shock because of the one they're fighting, was the same Metal Sonic who attacked him back at the water base.

"You again... Water alone isn't enough to beat you?"

**_"Shadow, you know who this robot is?"_**

The hedgehog just kept his eyes on the metal duplicate of his rival as it stood up from his attack, but still spoke to Omega anyway, "Yes, at one of Eggman's bases, I fought him but I had to leave immediately." Before they can continue talking, Metal ran up to Shadow and tried to stab him straight away, this didn't come to a surprise to Shadow since he was fast enough to dodge such an obvious attack like that.

But even though they were focused on fighting, Omega decided to scan Metal but luck was not on his side when the robot not only reacted fast but decided to target Omega's head. Fortunately, Shadow used to his hover shoes to give his leg a boost to kick Metal away from the E-robot. "Don't stand by so idly, Omega."

**_"I have a reason. There's awfully strange about this Metal Sonic, I have to keep scanning him for more information."_**

Shadow nodded and began to face off once more with Metal Sonic, but not just to defeat the robot and use this ship to good use, also to buy Omega enough time to get a full scan on Metal. Either way, they'll get more info from both options. "Time for a rematch. You aren't Sonic exactly, but this will do for now..."

* * *

Back at the lab, Tails was taking a closer look at the goop from Sonic's tracker under a microscope to know more about it. Even though Shadow had already got it checked out, for some reason, there was something about it that was nagging Tails that really grinds his gears and finally gave in to his curiosity.

Just then, Amy came out of Rouge's room with a big smile on her face, Tails looked at her and saw her smile, "You're awfully cheery, did something happen in there?" Tails asked, but his stance did not change and went back to what he was doing while Amy walked over to him. "Something good! Rouge really is a cool person once you get to know her."

"That's nice..." The young fox said before trailing off, his focus instantly switching back to checking the goo, but what caught his eye was that there was something up with the way the contagious virus operates. He squinted, looking closely at the components of the virus down to the tiniest details.

Amy noticed his expression change drastically and crept closer, wanting to look at whatever he's doing, "Tails, did you find something?" She asked in an interested manner, looking at the petri dish with a curious stare. Tails couldn't hear Amy ask, with him deeply thinking about what he had discovered. "N-no way..."

"Huh? Tails, snap out of it...!" The pink hedgehog shook Tails violently, snapping him from this shocking revelation. But that didn't stop him from looking incredibly worried, this prompted Amy to stop herself and let go of the fox. Tails, who was now shaking, tried to lift his arm and grab his chair, sitting down once he had it in his grasp. "Well? What is it?"

"Th-that goop we found on Sonic's tracker... It has a very complex... Makeup from what is normally found from a normal virus, this one was created through nanotechnology, which itself is highly advanced, " Calming himself a little, Tails looked over at the petri dish with a still look on his face. "But what really stood out to me was that the way it was made, it seems to infect the brain than the body itself. "

Amy took a step back and rubbed her chin, her eyes lowered until it viewed to the floor, she was thinking about it, "So this virus only infects the brain... What if, WHAT IF... Eggman has something in store for Sonic... Something big?" Before Tails can even respond back, the door behind them swing open and hit the wall loudly that it already caught Tails and Amy's attention.

It was Rouge, but she seemed to have changed into her jumpsuit, her posture looked confident, almost like she walked out of a battle unscathed. She looked directly at the two with fire in her eyes, "Where's Shadow?" She asked like nothing was wrong, but the tone of her voice was filled with concern, her breath hitched for a second but went back to normal afterward.

Amy stood there shocked but didn't waste any time dawdling and ran up to Rouge with a look of worry, "Rouge, you shouldn't be out of your bed, heck, you shouldn't be walking around!" The pink hedgehog said and tries to leas the white bat back to the bed, but Rouge held her ground, Amy wasn't able to pull her back to the bedroom.

"Rouge, what are you-"

"I'm fine now... I don't have time to stay in bed, I have to find Shadow," Rouge demanded, suddenly yelling at Amy and escaped her grip harshly, walking up to Tails. "Where the heck is Shadow?"

"Rouge, calm down! If you're really feeling fine, then I'll tell you where he is and some new info I got-" Suddenly, Tails' computer beeped and the three whipped their heads towards the monitor.

* * *

"Chaos Spear!" The spear was able to damage Metal, but it was only a dent as the robotic hedgehog made its move by kicking Shadow away. But Shadow caught its foot before it could hit him and threw it away from him as he fell back with Omega by his side. "Well, did you do it?"

**_"Yes, the scan is complete. There is something you should know about this Metal Sonic..." _**

"What-"

Metal clawed through the two but clearly missed and Shadow and Omega took a step back before going into a fighting stance, "We have to knock him out cold, he's the core of this entire ship, we can't destroy him yet." Shadow said and used a spin dash right at Metal's face, but the robot grabbed Shadow using nothing but its bare, however, the black hedgehog released himself from his attack and kicked Metal on its chin. The robot was sent flying but was able to simply fall back with a red glow in its eyes.

**_"Roger, immobilize Metal Sonic, not destroy him."_**

"Good, let's go!" The two then both attacked Metal at the same time with bullets flying around from Omega's arsenal to Shadow launching chaos energy-like bullets, but Metal Sonic took the hits and strikes back with a spin dash of his own, aiming at Omega first.

Shadow reacted fast and punched Metal away from Omega, summoning a chaos spear from his right hand, he immediately jabs the powerful weapon onto Metal's head. Already worrying that he might've done the opposite of what he was supposed to do, Metal Sonic began to only malfunction from the spear's impact, since it was still stuck in his head.

But then, something unexpected happened while the spear was still in the head, something that Shadow had not expected and what Omega had hoped to have warned Shadow about beforehand. Because of the flickering lights, it was definitely hard to see, but upon closer inspection, there a liquid was slowly pouring out of Metal's head. It seemed to only be one drop, but what took Shadow by surprise was the color of the liquid...

**Red. Blood Red.**

At that one instant, the whole world just dropped on Shadow, like a huge revelation had occurred to him a little too late. He tried to process from what he saw and felt, but it all pointed to one conclusion. The black hedgehog didn't wanna believe such a thing, the whole idea was insane in and of itself.

As he stood there, still shocked, Metal was still able to stand up with those cold dead look in its eyes, seeing Shadow with a look of panic on his face. The cold robot took this opportunity and just a split second, was already in front of Shadow, ready to stab the ebony hedgehog right then and there.

Shadow was too occupied with his thoughts to dodge Metal's attack fast enough, Omega was trying to push Shadow out of the way but he was out of Shadow's reach. Both not having enough time and the truth behind Metal becoming nothing but a buried secret once more, Shadow resorted to using Chaos Blast to get them out of this situation.

But then...

Metal was kicked down by someone, the kick itself packed a whole lot of punch to it since it was strong enough to make a hole below Metal Sonic as the robot fell down the floor level beneath them. Shadow gritted his teeth but his expression was nothing but confusion written all over his face until the person who attacked Metal landed in front of him.

He sighed, "Rouge..." He said, out of breath as the white bat turned around and gave Shadow that cheeky smile of hers, it ricked the black hedgehog. "What are you doing here?"

"Here to help you and Omega, duh. You two looked like you needed help."

"We were able to handle a few scratches."

"Yet you sent me to bed because of that very reason." The two glared at each other for a little whole before they were disturbed by Metal Sonic leaping from the lower floor and jumped back to the battle, more menacing than before, "This place is about to collapse, whoever this Metal Sonic is, he doesn't have enough power to keep this thing up in the air."

Shadow turned to Rouge, surprised to learn that she had caught up with the situation that he and Omega are in. "How did you-"

"Save it, Shadow. We'll have a little talk after this, " Before Metal can even attack, Rouge spread her wings and flew fast until she was at least an inch away from Metal Sonic and with just one kick, sent the robot duplicate flying and hitting the wall. "How about we **all** attack this time? Been a while since we used that attack."

Catching her drift, Shadow and Omega nodded and ran up to her, with the three now facing off the incredibly strong Metal Sonic, who looked angered and is bursting with energy. Rouge flew upon on Omega's shoulder while Shadow focused his chaos power, reconfiguring it with Omega's cannons.

**_"Chaos Inferno!!!" _**

* * *

**_A/N_****_I'm not completely satisfied with the right scenes, next time I'll probably edit it and make it more intense._**


	11. Better Be Alive

"... Metal's gone..." He said, exiting the now wrecked airship, buried beneath the ground about halfway. Shadow jumped out and landed on the ground swiftly as Rouge ran up to him with a calm look on her face, although she first eyes the ship for a few seconds before turning to Shadow, she looked as though she was running out of breath. "I'd recommend we head back, but Omega is in bad shape after the crash."

Shadow narrowed his eyes and thought about it for a while, but all the while his mind drifts off somewhere else, but ultimately made the decision to rest for a little until his robot comrade is up and running. The white bat nodded and walked off to where Omega is, who looks to be resting in the nearby forest. The orange sky got Rouge's attention, it meant it's getting dark soon but highly doubts that Shadow would just rest without heading off into danger.

But she couldn't argue with Shadow about that attitude of his, she's almost the same too, to an extent. She has some control over herself unlike her partner, but if anything can distract or used as a weapon against her, it would be her obsession with shiny gems and jewels. Anything that's valuable in her eyes, she wants all of them to herself, and for good reason, she is a thief after all. But when it comes to dire and probably emotional situations such as this one is a completely new world to Rouge, because of her desire to have all the gems of the world to be hers alone, she almost never understood other people's struggle with life, Shadow in particular. At first, it was just an infiltration mission from G.U.N., next thing she knew she was confronted by Shadow, but after escaping his clutches, she couldn't help but feel something strange towards him.

Her suspicions were confirmed when she had learned of his circumstances that led him to get revenge on humanity, the very living beings he despised for killing his longtime friend. Learning that he was nothing but a military weapon for the government sickened Rouge, it was a feeling she wanted to ignore once she had found out, but she was still feeling concern for the black hedgehog.

She really felt it... A bond between her and him, it made her feel soft inside like she had found someone she can rely on, someone that would stick by her. All of that was short-lived, however, when Shadow sacrificed his own life to save the very race he had held nothing but hatred with, but it wasn't for all for nothing.

Rouge continued to ponder on about her past with Shadow, as she tried to move Onega into a much more comfortable position. Not that the robot needed it, but it was comforting to know that Rouge truly does care about the E-robot, owning up to the idea of Rouge as a kind person as well. This action reminded Rouge further of her interactions with Shadow in the past, but what she was remembering was the aftermath of his supposed death, when Sonic walked up to her and gave her one of Shadow's inhibitor rings that managed to stay intact.

Today, she kept that ring like her life depended on it, it's very existence was something that motivated Rouge every day just by looking at it, reminding her of her days with Shadow. It was a nice feeling... like a warm embrace hugged her, protecting her from all the dangers of the world. It was a silly thing to feel, and she knows that, but the way it meant to Rouge just made her want to keep it to herself more. Besides, she did truly think he died...

"Rouge, " Suddenly being pulled out from her thoughts, she turned her head to the direction of the voice, Shadow walking up to her and Omega with. She couldn't tell but Rouge had a feeling that Shadow may or may not look concerned for their robotic comrade's well-being, but she knew that the hedgehog does worry for Omega. "How is he?"

Rouge was crouching next to Omega and in a caring manner, ran her hand down on his arm, narrowing her eyes, "He's fine, but he took a lot of damage from the crash..." She said, her hand then reached Omega's hand. Feeling the want and need to, she clutched his hand as gently as she can, still shaky after what happened. Busy gripping Omega's hand, she didn't even notice Shadow crouch down and set his hand down on hers. This surprised Rouge as she looked towards the black hedgehog with a gaze full of awe.

She wondered, about what Shadow is thinking right now. He looked at their partially damaged friend and after just a few seconds holding each other's hand, Shadow stood up which caught Rouge off guard. The bat thought that she must be done something wrong to provoke him but her worries subsided when Shadow simply sat down next to her, a long sigh escaping his mouth as be ruffled his quills in stress. Rouge let go of Omega's hand and sat down, at her right was her robot friend while at her left was Shadow, deep in thought.

"Well, " Shadow started, "Aren't you gonna tell me why you're out of bed?" Rouge looked away at the other direction, clearly trying to avoid eye contact with Shadow, who was waiting for an answer from her. He looked off in front of him, "Seeing as to how you were able to stand back up after the crash, I assume you're finally feeling better." The black hedgehog concluded, not bothering for Rouge to answer his question, it irritated her a little since she was about to open her mouth when he said that.

"Why wouldn't I be? I'm a quick healer, " She said, shrugging off her previous paralyzed state, wanting to forget that even happened in the first place, "But more importantly, I also came here to tell you some news. " Shadow looked back at her, now interested in what Rouge came to tell him about. A part of him says that whatever the white bat was gonna say, it's gotta be related to the bizarre bleeding head from Metal Sonic, it still shook him if he was really honest about it.

"First off, Tails got a lot out of the real Metal Sonic's memory chip, and the data you got from the two bases also telling so much. "

"There wasn't much on Metal's memory since, during the previous ones, he was just stationary. But then after being sent on an assignment by Eggman, he proceeded to come to Angel Island and, well, I guess you know what happens next, " Shadow nods a yes, confirming that he, indeed, remembers the incident on Angel Island. "It might not be much, but at least we can confirm that Eggman is behind all this, or that he has a connection with this 'destructive force'. "

"Then there's the data from the two computers. From the underwater base, there were blueprints for an armor of sorts. It wasn't much to go on, but the way it was designed looked like it was for either you or Sonic. And also, the outside layer of the armor bears striking resemblance to Metal Sonic, it was surprising that's for sure..."

"Armor...huh? " Shadow murmured to himself, he placed his arms on his knees, looking down with pondering eyes. He then thought to himself. If that were the case, then whoever Shadow faced in the underwater base and at the airship wasn't the really Metal Sonic at all, but a hedgehog clad in armor. Now begs the question,

Is that Sonic in that armor?

"Next, " He was pushed off of his thoughts when Rouge began to speak again, that was intentional on her part. She noticed that he was spacing off, trying to take all the information in without acting rash about it. But now that Shadow is out of his headspace, Rouge continued on with her explanation. "Anyway, the data disk, we also found the same ser of blueprints, but in addition to that, were notes and entries written by Eggman himself, his way of writing them made it too obvious of a finding. But those noted were important, those things documented studies and excruciating experiments of his latest works. "

Rouge pulled out a small bottle and gave it to Shadow, this didn't really matter to him at all until he saw what was inside. It was a tiny but visible spec of the virus goo that Tails got from Sonic's tracker. This itself came as a surprise to Shadow, "That virus inside the bottle, " The ebony hedgehog raised his head up and looked towards Rouge, needing more answers from her at this instant. "Turns out it was a virus that allows Eggman to control anyone it infects. Apparently, the virus only responds to Eggman, no-one else, which is a total buzzkill."

"All of these things we found, they were all prototype plans made by Eggman, but when put together creates a plan where it involves Sonic. So in my opinion, wherever Eggman is, Sonic is with him-"

"Or that he was in front of us this entire time."

Silence befell them at that very minute. Rouge's eyes widened as she looked at Shadow like she was hit with a big revelation, but Shadow couldn't blame her, he can hardly believe it himself. After just a few seconds of thinking to herself, the white bat let out a gasp but quickly covered her mouth with both hands, this prompted Shadow to stand up. "What... Shadow, what do you mean by that...?"

"It's what you think I mean..." He said, to put it calmly to Rouge. His eyes landed on Omega and just seconds, Shadow sighed and walked up to the robot, placing his hand in Omega's fixed head carefully, "Rouge, I'm heading back to headquarters, take Omega to Tails and Rose to get him repaired, I don't trust G.U.N. fixing him up. " but before he can even continue running off, Rouge grabbed his arm out of instinct, making Shadow turn his head at her with a surprised look.

"Why are you going to HQ?" She asked blandly, not even showing emotion. That shocked Shadow a little since whenever they had their quarrels with each other, she would show anger, sadness, or anything, something! He stood his ground, however, not showing a sign of emotion towards her actions. "Tails and Rose aren't the only ones we can go to for information. I requested HQ to search for any recent activities regarding Eggman, including a search for his new hideout."

She still didn't let go, not even slip a finger off of his arm, Rouge just stood there... With a blank look on her face. But soon her hand let go of Shadow's arm, he didn't run though, all he did was turn his back. He looked off in front of him with eyes of determination, "Do you have anything to say to me before I go?" Rouge cracked her mouth open out of surprise, not expecting Shadow to let her say something to him. Her eyes narrowed, she began closing her hands into fists, as she slowly walked over to him. But then what came next caught Shadow off guard.

Rouge proceeded to wrap her arms around him from behind, and as she tried to slip her head up to his cheek, her lips pecked a small but soft kiss on the hedgehog's muzzle. This sent shivers into Shadow's body, rendering him motionless as Rouge retracted her head back and onto Shadow's ear, whispering something to him quietly. Finally, she stepped back and Shadow nodded. "I will."

With that, Shadow took off leaving a gust of wind blowing behind him, but this didn't affect Rouge as she stuck her feet to the ground, looking at the black blur that is her gloomy partner. A smile crept on her face and giggled.

Looking back at what she whispered to him, she walked back to Omega and took a brief stop for a second, repeating what she said to Shadow.

"No matter what happens, you better be still alive when I arrive, you hear me?"


End file.
